Meade Instruments Corporation
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Meade Smart Drive

 

Meade® Smart Drive

Permanent Periodic Error Correction (PPEC) for Meade LX200GPS Telescopes

Included as standard equipment with all Meade LX200GPS Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes, and with the #1664 and #1697 drive systems of Meade apochromatic refractors as well, the Smart Drive permits a professional level of drive-rate precision. No longer are large systems required, worm gear

when smaller gears coupled to Smart Drive software can achieve periodic errors of 5 arc secs or less-an observatory standard of precision.

All worm/worm-gear combinations, no matter how well made, have minor inaccuracies that manifest themselves as periodic errors in the telescope tracking rate, with

Smart Drive Autostar
the period dependent on the worm's rate of rotation. To program the Smart Drive the observer guides on an object visually, making corrections with the handbox controller.

The software then remembers these keystrokes, stores them in memory, and in the future automatically compensates for the periodic errors of the gear system.

Smart Drive user programming is stored in the telescope's computer memory forever, independently of any power source, unlike other periodic error correctors that must be reprogrammed each time you use the system. The Smart Drive can be erased, updated, or even averaged with future programmings at the user's option.

The significant value of the Smart Drive is immediately appreciated during long-exposure astrophotography, where the resultant low periodic error of the system enables relaxed guiding with a minimum of handbox corrections. In CCD imaging, where 2- to 3-minute exposures of deep-space objects are often all that is required for stunning results, the Smart Drive often permits imaging without any guiding requirements at all.


 
Spiral Galaxy